Norvic Philatelics - GB New Stamps and Special Postmarks

Great British Fashion - 15 May 2012

Britain
is famous around the world for the creative vision of its
fashion designers, its refi ned Savile Row tailoring, its
shoemakers, milliners – not forgetting its fi ne wool
fabrics and yarn.

Since 1945, fashion has grown to become a major national
industry. Today it employs about a million people and
contributes directly some £21 billion to the UK economy.

This issue showcases the very best of post-war fashion,
featuring the innovative fashion houses that have put the UK
in the top rank of world fashion design, and showcasing a
prime example of each selected designer’s work.

The idea for the issue came from the British Design Classics
stamps of 2009, which featured the stylish chic of Mary
Quant’s daring mini skirt. This proved to be one of the most
popular of the ten stamps featured in the issue; prompting the
decision to dedicate an entire issue to our world-class
designers.

The
Ten
Stamps

The stamps - all 1st class

1st Class – Hardy Amies
.... became managing director of Mayfair couture house Lachesse in 1934.
After World War II he opened his own fashion business in Savile Row. Amies
was the first major European fashion designer to venture into ready-to-wear
and in 1955 received a Royal Warrant as dressmaker to the Queen. Other
commissions have included clothing for the 1966 England World Cup squad and
the 1972 GB Olympic squad and the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The
Amies’ outfit shown on the stamp dates from the late 1940s.

1st Class – Norman Hartnell
.... opened his first couture house at 10 Bruton Street, Mayfair in 1923. In
1940 he received a Royal Warrant as dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth,
subsequently Royal Warrant as dressmaker to HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen
Mother. A Royal Warrant as dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth II was issued in
1957. The stamp shows an outfit created by Hartnell in the 1950s.

1st Class – Granny Takes a Trip
.... was a boutique opened in February 1965 at 488 Kings Road in London’s
Chelsea, by Nigel Waymouth, his girlfriend Sheila Cohen and John Pearse. The
shop, which was acquired by Freddie Hornik in 1969,
remained open until the mid-70s and has been called the ‘first psychedelic
boutique in Groovy London of the 1960s’. The jacket shown on the stamp was
designed by John Pearse using a Morris & Co. furniture fabric print
called Golden Lily (1899).

1st Class – Ossie Clark print by Celia
Birtwell
Raymond ‘Ossie Clark’ was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties scene in
London and the fashion industry in that era. Clark is now renowned for his
vintage designs by present-day designers and compared to the 1960s fashion
greats Mary Quant and Biba. He has influenced many other designers,
including Yves Saint Laurent, Anna Sui and Tom Ford. The outfit shown on the
stamp dates from the late 1960s and features a print by Celia Birtwell.

1st Class – Tommy Nutter
.... recreated the Savile Row suit in the 1960s. In 1969, he joined up with
Edward Sexton, to open Nutters of Savile Row. Nutter combined traditional
tailoring skills with innovative design. His clients included Mick Jagger
and Elton John. Nutter was most proud of the fact that he dressed three out
of the four Beatles on the cover of the LP Abbey Road. The suit featured on
the stamp was originally designed for
Ringo Starr and has been recreated especially for the photo shoot.

1st Class – Jean Muir
....worked briefly in a solicitor’s office before taking a stockroom job at
Liberty & Co in 1950. Despite her lack of formal art college training,
she was given the opportunity to sketch in Liberty’s ready-to-wear
department, which led to her gaining a job as designer for Jaeger in 1956.
Her own label Jean and Jane was launched in 1962 followed by Jean Muir Ltd
in 1966. Famous clients include former Muir model
Joanna Lumley, Charlotte Rampling and Maggie Smith. The outfit featured here
dates to the late 70s / early 80s.

1st Class – Zandra Rhodes
.... was one of the new wave of British designers who put London at the
forefront of the international fashion scene in the 1970s. Her designs are
considered clear, creative statements, dramatic but graceful, bold but
feminine. Rhodes’s inspiration has been from organic material and
nature. Her approach to the construction of garments can be seen in her use
of reversed exposed seams and in her use of jewelled safety pins and tears
during the punk era.

With her bright green hair (later pink and sometimes red or other colours),
theatrical makeup and art jewellery, she stamped her own clear identity on
the international world of fashion. Rhodes designed for Diana, Princess of
Wales, and continues to design for royalty and celebrities. She notably
designed several outfits for Freddie Mercury. The early 80s gold ‘Royal’
dress shown here comes from Zandra Rhodes’s personal collection.

1st Class – Vivienne Westwood
.... is largely responsible for bringing punk fashion into the mainstream.
In the mid-1970s with Malcolm McLaren, Westwood created clothes drawing
inspiration from bikers, fetishists and prostitutes, which McLaren sold from
his Kings Road boutique. When McLaren became manager of the Sex Pistols, the
band wore Westwood and McLaren’s designs. The ‘punk style’ included bondage
gear, safety pins, razor
blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars for
jewellery. Westwood’s work includes the adoption of traditional elements of
Scottish design, such as tartan fabric, and the reinterpretation of 17th and
18th century cloth cutting principles.

Her first catwalk show was presented in 1981, featuring the collaboration of
Westwood and McLaren. The first major retrospective of her work was shown in
2004–05 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The 1993 Harlequin
dress shown here was famously modeled by Naomi Campbell

1st Class – Paul Smith
.... left school at 15 with the ambition of becoming a racing cyclist. A
cycling accident put an end to his cycling hopes, and during the six-month
hospital stay that followed Smith made some new friends. After leaving
hospital he arranged to meet them at a local pub that was popular with art
students. It was then that he realised he wanted to be a designer. Smith
took evening tailoring classes with Gordon Valentine Tipton, who showed him
how to cut cloth as well as taught him all the basics. Later Smith joined
Lincroft Kilgour in Savile Row, where his designs were worn by celebrities,
including George Best. He opened his fi rst shop in 1970. In 1976 Smith’s
first menswear collection was shown in Paris, under the Paul Smith label. In
1998, he showed his first women’s collection at London Fashion Week.

Paul Smith remains fully involved in the business, designing clothes,
choosing fabrics, approving the shop locations and overseeing every
development within the company. He has showrooms in London, Paris, Milan,
New York and Tokyo. The suit on the stamp dates from around 2003.

1st Class – Alexander McQueen
.... was a fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth
knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength
with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw
energy of his provocative fashion shows. He worked as chief designer at
Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and founded his own label under the name
Alexander McQueen. His achievements have
earned four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003),
as well as the CFDA’s International Designer of the Year award in 2003. The
piece shown on the stamp is ‘Black Raven’ from McQueen’s Horn of Plenty 2009
collection.

Technical details:

The stamps were designed by Johnson Banks, and are printed by Cartor
Security Printing in lithography. The 35x37mm square stamps are perf
14.5 in sheets of 25/50. The stamps in row 1 are in one sheet of 25
(5x5), the stamps in row 2 are in a second sheet of 25, enabling vertical
strips of 5 of any single design to be obtained.

Products issued - we will not be stocking these:

Set of 10 stamps (2 strips of 5) Strip of 5 from sheet
1 or sheet 2, or vertical strip of 5 of any single stamp
First day cover Presentation
pack Set of 10 Stamp cards

These can be obtained from Post Offices and from Royal
Mail's website for 12 months after the date of issue.

Special Postmarks

Postmarks available for the day of issue are shown here. These
postmarks cannot be obtained after the date of issue. Not
to scale.

picture not available

Ref FD1227
Philatelic Bureau Official Postmark

Ref FD1228 London W1

Ref FD1228NP
London W1 Official non-pictorial Postmark

Ref L12491 Savile Row, London W1

Ref L12489 Fashion London W1

Ref L12490 Savile Row London W1

Ref L12488 Milton Keynes

Ref M12492 Ascot Close, Birmingham

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